Five cars set on fire in Helsinki overnight
A total of seven cars have been torched this week, with varying degrees of success
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At least seven cars have been set on fire in Helsinki during the current week.
The latest five vehicles were torched on Wednesday evening and the following night.
Slightly before 10:30 pm, two cars had been set ablaze in the residential area of Karhusaari. However, the residents managed to extinguish the blaze, and the vehicles were not badly damaged.
A few hours later, three cars were in flames in a parking lot in the suburb of Malmi.
Detective Inspector Jyri Hiltunen from the Helsinki Police Department cannot say yet whether or not the five incidents are related to each other.
The fires are being investigated as deliberate sabotage.
”Five sounds quite a large number, but the investigation is only at an initial stage, which is why I cannot say whether these incidents are a part of a larger chain”, Hiltunen noted.
The first car fires of the week occured early on Monday morning, when two new cars were burned in a car depot in the district of Herttoniemi.
The news of the car fires was first reported by the late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.
One of the vehicles burnt in Karhusaari was an old Peugeot, while the other one was a Jeep.
According to Ilta-Sanomat, all of the other burnt vehicles were luxury cars.
Setting luxury cars on fire is common for example in Berlin in Germany, where the number of burnt vehicles has so far been more than 550 this year.
A special squad involving 150 police officers are hunting for the car arsonists.
In October, a jobless Berlin resident, aged 27, confessed that he had burned 67 luxury cars.
”I have debts and my life stinks, which is why those who own fine cars have earned this”, the man said, explaining his actions to the police.
In Berlin, car torchings have also been blamed on left-wing extremists.
Helsinki police as yet have no information whatsoever about the individuals who have set cars ablaze in the Finnish capital.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 9.12.2011 - TODAY |
 Five cars set on fire in Helsinki overnight |
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